Gilles de Brock’s bold poster designs use found imagery and psychedelic hues

Art director and designer Gilles de Brock’s designs are informed by “the limitations of the medium” he uses in each project. Psychedelic in colour choice and composition, Gilles creates work for long-term clients, who give him the trust and freedom he needs to experiment. Having worked with Nike, Metahaven, and most recently Red Bull, Gilles hopes to convey his own reflections on a subject in ways that the client may not have previously considered.

“The hardest challenge is to keep myself happy doing the designs. I get bored easily and since I like to think it’s all just a hobby and I don’t have to force myself to do it,” explains Gilles, who earns his keep outside of the design world. “I find a lot of challenges in programming different aspects of the work which is something I generally enjoy doing.”

An ongoing project of the designer’s is a series of posters for the Studium Generale at the KABK in the Hague, which encapsulates the organised chaos that’s come to define Gilles’ work. Using a mixture of found imagery from Google, pop culture references and nostalgic typography, it’s a bold series, with an identity that’s become more image-focused and refined over the years. “I’d like to think my work conveys clear stories, but I never set out to tell a specific story. I work intuitively, so usually the work is abstract to some extent and most of the time I don’t know how it will come out in print,” says Gilles. “I think with the posters specifically, each is a recording of the topics that are currently in my head.”

Every month, ten people descend upon a basement studio in Dublin’s historic Merrion Square. The streets are lined with grand Georgian houses and pristine iron gates protect a well-kept public park. Each person is there to attend a two-day workshop organised by a tenaciously talented Welsh woman in order to learn how to make film props.

Earlier this year fashion icon Alexa Chung had her many fans reeling with the news of her own label. The campaign saw the model, muse, presenter and writer put her trend-spotting taste to use in creating her own collection. Such an exciting move from Alexa had to look slick and playful in every aspect, from the clothes to the branding, which was created by Studio Frith.

“‘Does it have to be readable?’ is a main theme in a lot of my work,” says Icelandic-born and Berlin-based graphic designer Greta Thorkels. This approach to design isn’t a usual one, but by turning design on its head Greta is carving her own eclectic graphic path.

Afrika is a design studio based in Switzerland, founded by Florian Jakober and Michael Zehnder. The studio works on a variety of projects, most recently finding itself designing custom typefaces for other studios and agencies. “It’s nice to have clients that understand as much about typography as we do. This way of working also allows us to work in bigger teams and learn a lot from everybody,” says Afrika.

If you go down to Highgate Woods in London today, you might be in for a bit of a surprise. Among the dog walkers, the frazzled parents searching for their kids and the forestry workers making sure that the ancient woodland is being preserved, you might, if you look carefully, find one of the most prolific artists and illustrators working in the UK. Highgate Woods, all 28 hectares of it, is Noma Bar’s ‘office’. Everyday, come rain or shine, the graphic artist is there, somewhere, armed with his notebooks and pens, working through ideas that will appear in their final forms in newspapers, magazines, as part of a campaign or a gallery.

Inspired by “wrong” design and a fondness for “flaws and errors”, aptly named Wrong Studio has been championing well-executed typography and graphic expertise by adding a twist of their own signature style. The studio was founded in 2013 by two colleagues, Andreas Peitersen and Jess Andersen, who decided it was time to steer things in a more personal direction. Since its launch, the duo have dabbled in various projects with a close-knit and collaborative ethos. We spoke to Andreas to find out more about some of its most studio-defining projects.